The present invention relates to an equipment for parachute jumps in an oversized parachute.
A particular application of the invention is for tandem jumps, i.e. when the parachutist brings, under the same parachute, a person or an additional front load.
For such jumps, oversized parachutes are used, for carrying, in addition to the parachutist himself, a passenger—hence their name of “tandem parachute”—or an additional front load. Theses parachutes are of the ram air with cells type, featuring a cellular structure forming a floating canopy. In the present disclosure, all kinds of canopies such as paragliders, sailwings or parachutes are referred to as “parachute”. The parachutist who brings with him another person or an additional front load is called a “pilot”, and the person brought a “passenger”.
Unless otherwise indicated, the explanations given with reference to a passenger are also valid, similarly if applicable, with reference to an additional load.
Document U.S. Pat. No. 4,746,084 describes an equipment for tandem parachute jump, comprising a parachute harness for the passenger and a parachute harness for the pilot, the passenger's harness being connected to the pilot's harness by snaps located at shoulders and waist.
According to the currently used technique, the passenger is hung by a retaining device consisting of flexible straps, whose anchoring point connects to the pilot's harness, which supports it. This anchoring point can be located in front or at the back of the shoulder line.
The prior art equipments have several disadvantages.
With such a device, the passenger carried either rests against the pilot during the whole canopy descent, or is uncomfortably hung from the back.
The main disadvantage resulting from this type of piloting, namely during longstanding flights, is that the passenger and/or the pilot undergo a severe lack of comfort and cannot find an appropriate position during the landing.
The passenger is constantly either pushed forward by the pilot's body, with the inconvenient of exercising a pressure on the thoracic cage of the pilot, or pressed in the straps of the legstraps due to the fact that he is hung by the back.
This pressing results in a physical and psychic fatigue that gradually lowers the reflexes.
Because of the current arrangement of the straps during the landing, the passenger can be, during the landing, either in a very low position with respect to the pilot, where it is difficult for the pilot to hit the ground first, or the passenger is forced to perform an important muscular contraction to pull up his legs during the landing operation, which is a physical effort that all passengers are not able to provide.
When the passenger has not pulled up his legs high enough, the consequences can be serious, since they relate to the pelvis as well as to the vertebral column, not to mention that it also puts the pilot in a difficult situation.